Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Nursing

Advisor

Carolyn Sipes

Abstract

The Emergency Nurses Association recommends nurse preceptorship programs for emergency departments (EDs) to give nurses the skills needed for precepting new nurses; however, many rural areas do not have nurse education for preceptorship, and no standardized training is available for preparing preceptors for their roles. Rural ED preceptors therefore lack knowledge and skills needed for precepting new nurses. The purpose of this study, guided by Benner’s skill acquisition and self-efficacy theory, was to determine if there were significant differences in 33 rural ED nurse preceptors’ knowledge and self-efficacy after they completed an online informational PowerPoint presentation. The PowerPoint education program developed by Garner and Kaldawi served as the 4-module educational program. A quantitative pretest and posttest design was used to determine if the educational program improved participant knowledge and self-efficacy. Parson’s preceptor self-efficacy scale was used to assess changes in self-efficacy while Smedley’s knowledge, teaching, and learning scale was used to assess changes in preceptor knowledge. The sample consisted of 33 Northeast US rural emergency nurse preceptors. Results of a Wilcoxon signed rank test used to compare the differences between pre and post preceptor knowledge and self-efficacy revealed statistically significant improvements in knowledge and self-efficacy (p < 0.05). Post evaluations of the educational PowerPoint were largely positive with over 70% believing the PowerPoint education improved their knowledge and 72.7% describing the informational PowerPoint as effective in the online format. Future research with a larger sample size is recommended. Results may promote positive social change by supporting the need for standardized preceptor education, especially in rural areas.

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